Campaigners have accused leader of Bath & North East Somerset council Tim Warren of refusing to meet with them publicly to discuss their concerns about how the city is being run.

Last month, angry residents presented council leaders with a petition signed by more than one per cent of the B&NES electorate calling on them to attend a public meeting to answer questions about three deeply unpopular proposals.

The proposals included the central library move to a smaller location, the plan for a multi-million pound Park & Ride on Bathampton Meadows and the 100 per cent art funding cuts.

More than 20,000 people have signed petitions and hundreds have taken to the streets in recent months to urge the Conservative-led council leaders to rethink their controversial plans for the city.

In the latest petition, on the national campaign website 38 Degrees, almost 1,700 people said they had lost confidence in the council leadership to do what was best for Bath, and that some of their policies will ‘irreparably damage’ the city they represent.

Yet campaigners said that in his latest email, Mr Warren told them the council will not recognise the petition and he will not attend a public meeting; offering small private meetings with individual campaign groups instead.

Mr Warren told the Chronicle that it is "simply wrong to suggest that I have refused a meeting".

Valentines Day protest at the Guildhall in Bath where protestors chant against proposed cuts to Bath Library Service across BANES (Image: PICTURE: Paul Gillis)

But new umbrella group Bath Deserves Better, which represents the three campaign groups, said this fell far short of what residents were demanding and that they will hold a public meeting whether or not council leaders attend.

Dionne Pemberton, of the Save Bath Library group, said: “People have a right to ask questions of their leaders, questions that until now have not been answered at council meetings or in emails.

“There has been so much confusion about the council's plans, largely fuelled by the inaccurate information that the council has been putting out. We need a proper open debate where Bath's electorate can hear from their leaders and get their questions answered once and for all.”

Bathampton Meadows Alliance campaigner Christine Boyd said that Mr Warren had initially been concerned that the meeting would fall within the pre-election run-up to the Metro Mayor election and Newbridge by-election at the beginning of May.

However, Ms Boyd added: “We have now agreed that the public meeting will be held after those elections, in the second week of May, but Cllr Warren has still said he will not attend. We just hope that he sees sense and changes his mind.

"Cllr Warren and his fellow Cabinet members are our elected representatives and we have a right to question them and have our questions answered.

“It is also an opportunity for council leaders to put their case, and to have a proper dialogue with the people of this city.

“We've been asking for more than a year now for example for them to give us their evidence that this £17.5-million Park & Ride will do what they say it will do, but we've had nothing, no business case, no answers, just a public consultation which they've ignored.

Protestors line the streets outside the Guildhall in Bath ahead of an controversial decision by BANES cabinet members to decide the final place to sight and build the new park and ride (Image: PICTURE: Paul Gillis)

“People have had enough of this lack of transparency and accountability, and are very worried about the direction that our beloved city is being taken in.”

Mr Warren said it is wrong to suggest he has refused to meet with campaigners and that the petition was dealt with by the council in the ‘normal way’.

“I regularly meet with residents, businesses and interest groups from across B&NES on a range of issues, and I’m always happy to meet with any local groups to discuss any issues or concerns they want to raise with the council, or listen to any proposals they may have,” he said.

“Indeed a meeting has been arranged between myself and library campaigners for this week. It is therefore simply wrong to suggest that I have refused a meeting.

“Regarding the petition itself, this is dealt with by the council in the normal way in accordance with the council constitution, and this process is not something which I or any councillors have any involvement with.

“Where a petition receives the required number of signatories from B&NES residents it is then debated at a full council meeting.”